Furniture construction.



UNITED srnrns iig-TENT OFFICE.

o'r'ro viiNsELoW, or scHooLcnArr, MICHIGAN.

FURNITURE CONSTRUCTION.

To all whom 'it may concer-n.'

Be it known that I. Or'ro Vemsnnow. a subject of the Emperor of Germany, residing at Schoolcraft. in the county of ,Kala- `mazoo and State of Michigan, have invented certain neuv and useful lmprm'ements in Furniture Construction, of which the following is a specification.

Myl invention relates to improvements in lfurniture construction and is especially aplicable to such furniture as chairs and the ike carried on supports which must be firmly tied and braced together.

The object of my invention, generally speaking, is to provide a tie or brace device of novel and improved form and construction by means of which, for example, the legs of a .chair can be firmly tied together,

and which isadapted to be placed in a concealed position in.. a piece of furniture of ordinary construction.

To' be more specific. my invention has for its object to Aprovide a metal, preferably steel tie device which can be applied with a minimum cuttingto furniture made of .\vood, which is especially adapted to exert all strains in the same plane which shall have a certain flexibility and adjustability for the purpose hereinafter describedmfliich can be assembled With the other parts of the piece of furniture by a simple, easily performed operation not requiring a' high degree of skill, which shall. besimple and inexpensive of manufacture. compact in form and adapted to be most securelylocked to-4 gether so as to produce equal tensions as between the parts of the article of furniture which it ties together.

These and such other objects as may hereinafter appear are attained by my invention, a preferred form of which is shovvn in the accompanying drawing as applied to an ordinary dining room chair.

Figure 1 indicates a chair with my device .applied Fig. 42 is a view on the line A-A of Fig. l, looking in the direction indicated by the arrows. Fig. 3 is a View of my device in preferred form, as itis assembled 1n a chair or similar article of furniture. Fig. 4 is a detail sectional View through a chair leg and portions of the rounds, supplied with my device. Fig. 5 is a detail sectional View through one of the connecting members. Fig. 6 is a perspective View of the assembled device as shown in Fig. 3.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed October 2, 1911.

Patented. Feb. 20, 1912. Serial No. 652,287.

Like letters of reference indicate the same parts in the various figures of the drawings. A is one of'the connecting members or couj'iling elements for the tie rods provided with thc opening or passage B and transversely on substantially the same plane with As shovvn in Fig. 4, the connecting members A are embedded in recesses f formed in the outer faces of the legs F of thev chair, these recesses being preferably closed by the Wooden blocks G. lli/'hen the chair is provided with the reinforcing or bracing structure adjacentits rungs H, which is a preferred construction, the latterare formed .either with grooves zin their under surm faces. as shown in Fig. 4. or with longitudinal j'ierforations extendingl therethrough from end to end. and the tie rods D lie' Within these grooves or'perforations so as to be effectively concealed.

In putting the chair together the recesses j' are made in the outer faces of the legs after Which the legs are bored through vto formt-he perforations f', f2 for the tie rods.

'The coupling elements A are fitted into the recesses )c and the tie rods Dscrewed into the sockets C. Glue is applied to the ends of the rnngs H and the rungs'slipped over the tie rods. By bringing the le s and rungs together in proper position t e free ends of the tie `rods D areprojected through the perforations B in the couplingelements. The nuts .E are .then placed on the ends of .the tie rods and screwed up 11s much as is required.

It Will be seen that the assembling of the parts of the chair and the reinforcing or bracing structure is a simple operation which can be quickly performed and vvhich does not require a great deal of skill for its per- A fOrmanCe.' It is necessary that the operation should be quickly performed because if much time is Wasted the glue on the ends of the rungs sets'so that the job has to be t'o receive these elements;

done over again. After the parts of the chair have been thus assembled the nuts E may be adjusted so that the reinforcing structure exerts an equal tension on the legs. If the bracing struct-ure did not have this capacityfor ready adjustment it might prove worse'. than useless as theexistence of a tension which is greater between one pair of legs than between the others will result in weakening rather than strengthening the chair. As the coupling elements are disks of comparatively small diameter the legs are very little weakened by the recesses formed Preferably the tie rods forming the reinforcing structure lie in the same horizontal plane. This is desirable in order that the reinforcing struclture should not exert unequal strains on the chair; As the free ends of the rod D pass loosely through the perforations B in the eoupling members the reinforcing structure may be made to assume a sha e' which is not strictly rectangular, as must be the case, for example, when the front legs of the chair are set a little wider apart than the back legs, or vice versa. The comparatively small cross sectional areas of the recesses fand the fact that. these ,recesses are circular makes it'easie'r to both formthem and to effectively cover and conceal tl1em Withthe covering blocks or disks G. f

The device of my invention may, `of course, be applied to' furniture havingany number of legs from ythree upward, and' maysbe used in any. desired arrangement, the arrangement in a `parallelo ram. being shown in the drawingmerely or convenient illustration. I therefore do not Wish to limit my invention to the specific forms, devices or arrangements shown except so far as the `same are made specically l limitations` in certain-of the claims; it being my intention to claim both-broadly and narrowly whatever patentable noveltyV 4my device may involvein view of thestate of the prior art.

I claim:

l. The combination with an article of furniture having support-ing' members and transverse members between the supporting members, of a reinforcing device for the same comprising tie rods which are coucealed within the transverse members, and coupling elements' for the tie rods, one end of each of the tie rods being secured to a coupling element and the other end passing, through another coupling element and being provided on the other side of the same with tension adjusting means.

2. The combination with an article of vfurniturehaving supporting members and transverse members between the supporting members, of a reinforcing device for the same comprising tie rods which are concealed 4within the transverse members and coupling elements for thetie rods arranged within the supporting members, the ends of the tie rods being threaded and one end being secured in a threaded socket in-a coupling element and the other end passing loosely through another coupling element 'and being provided with a nut.

3. The lcombination with an article of 'furniture having supporting members and transverse members between the supporting members, of a reinforcing device for the samecomprising tie rods which' are coneealed Within the transverse members, and cylindrical coupling elements arranged in bores in the supporting members, one 4end ofeach of the tie rods extending through the curved surface of the cylindrical coupling element and being secured thereto, the other end extending from end to end through another cylindrical coupling element 'and being provided on the other side of the same with tension adjusting means.' OTTO VANSELOV. Witnesses:

OLIVER SMITH, Cifras. Kme: i 

